Can't decide on a motherboard

[Murissa]

Hey guys

 

I am building a computer, all components are below.

 

Processor: i7 6700K

Ram: Cossair Vengence 16GB DDR4

CPU Cooler: Noctura NH-D15

Drives: 3TB HDD and 250GB SSD

Case: Cossair obsidium 450D

Power supply: Cooler Master Vanguard 80+ Gold 650W

Graphics card: GTX 1070 8GB

 

Currently my dilemma is what would be a good motherboard for the above components.

 

My thoughts are on a MSI X99A SLI PI atm but I don't know if it is good for what I have.

 

Do you guys have any suggestions please? I'm really not familiar with motherboards or which ones not to get.

 

P.S. I won't be overclocking.

 

EDIT: Or this one? Gigabyte GA-X99P SLI PI. Honestly I have no idea what I am doing when it comes to motherboards.

[Sintezza]

X99 motherboards wont work with your Skylake 6700K

You should look at Z170 motherboards instead.

What is your budget for a board?

[MrMcMuffinJr]

Next time use PC Part Picker Murissa. it makes life a lot easier

[The Belgian Waffle]

Same as Sintezza, X99 are not for 6700k's

[Murissa]

3 minutes ago, Sintezza said:

X99 motherboards wont work with your Skylake 6700K

You should look at Z170 motherboards instead.

What is your budget for a board?

Ok cool, whats difference between X99 and Z170 boards btw? Also why aren't i7 for X99s?
Budget is around $400 AUD ($300USD). I can go upto $500 AUD but that would be max.

 

Thank you everyone else for the help also, I appreciate it

[steffeeh]

To clarify what is being said above, the X99 boards use an Intel 2011-3 socket, while the 6700k needs an 1151 socket. So the CPU won't fit on the motherboard - it's pretty much like plugging a british power cable into the wall when you're in the US, it just won't fit.

 

Otherwise than your socket, make sure that your motherboard fits in your chassi (shouldn't be a problem in your case, but just so you know it for the future).

 

More than that, it depends on what you want out of your motherboard, such as how many PCI-e slots, how many RAM slots, supported RAM frequencies, SLI-support, different inputs and outputs, and various features. It may be a good idea to determine what you want and add those features to filter out board that don't match on sites such as PCPartPicker and such.

 

EDIT: The difference between X99 and Z170 boards is that they use different BIOS chipsets (i.e X99 chipset vs Z170 chipset), and these chipsets are locked at a specific socket... X99 chipset being locked to the 2011-3 socket, and the Z170 chipset being locked to the 1151 socket.

Each socket however can have multiple different chipsets that are compatible, but these all have different features. In your case, just focus on the Z170.

[Sintezza]

8 minutes ago, Murissa said:

Ok cool, whats difference between X99 and Z170 boards btw? Also why aren't i7 for X99s?
Budget is around $400 AUD ($300USD). I can go upto $500 AUD but that would be max.

 

Thank you everyone else for the help also, I appreciate it

X99 is intels enthusiast platform, which means more pci-e connectivity directly to the cpu,

and more cores essentially.

Also support for quadchannel memory configurations.

There are i7´s for X99 platform, namely Haswell-E and Broadwell-E chips.

 

Haswell-E

 

- 5820K  6 core 12 threads 28 pci-e 3.0 lanes.

- 5930K  6 core 12 threads 40 pci-e 3.0 lanes.

- 5960X  8 core 16 threads 40 pci-e 3.0 lanes.

 

Broadwell-E

 

- 6800K 6 core 12 threads 28 pci-e 3.0 lanes

- 6850K 6 core 12 threads 40 pci-e 3.0 lanes

- 6900K 8 core 16 threads 40 pci-e 3.0 lanes

- 6950X 10 core 20 threads 40 pci-e 3.0 lanes.

 

But if your main goal with the system is gaming.

Then X99 isnt really an interesting platform for you.

Because Skylake the 6700K is pretty much faster in most games, because they are have a better per core performance and ipc.

And of course a higher base and turbo clocks.

 

X99 is socket 2011-3 motherboards.

Z170 Skylake are socket 1151 motherboards.

[Murissa]

5 minutes ago, Sintezza said:

X99 is intels enthusiast platform, which means more pci-e connectivity and more cores essentially.

There are i7´s for X99 platform, namely Haswell-E and Broadwell-E chips.

 

Haswell-E

 

- 5820K  6 core 12 threads 28 pci-e 3.0 lanes.

- 5930K  6 core 12 threads 40 pci-e 3.0 lanes.

- 5960X  8 core 16 threads 40 pci-e 3.0 lanes.

 

Broadwell-E

 

- 6800K 6 core 12 threads 28 pci-e 3.0 lanes

- 6850K 6 core 12 threads 40 pci-e 3.0 lanes

- 6900K 8 core 16 threads 40 pci-e 3.0 lanes

- 6950X 10 core 20 threads 40 pci-e 3.0 lanes.

 

 

Would you say it is better to get a X99 with a matching CPU that you have listed? I will play games on this system, but I will also be using 3D editing programs and video editing.

EDIT: ANd programming.

 

7 minutes ago, steffeeh said:

To clarify what is being said above, the X99 boards use an Intel 2011-3 socket, while the 6700k needs an 1151 socket. So the CPU won't fit on the motherboard - it's pretty much like plugging a british power cable into the wall when you're in the US, it just won't fit.

 

Otherwise than your socket, make sure that your motherboard fits in your chassi (shouldn't be a problem in your case, but just so you know it for the future).

 

More than that, it depends on what you want out of your motherboard, such as how many PCI-e slots, how many RAM slots, supported RAM frequencies, SLI-support, different inputs and outputs, and various features. It may be a good idea to determine what you want and add those features to filter out board that don't match on sites such as PCPartPicker and such.

Thank you for the explanation  

I'm nt too sure of the benefits of more than 3 PCI-e slots?? 

RAM frequencies I am not too sure on either. Or the SLI support. Sorry I'm still wrapping my head around motherboard components. But I will go through that list one at a time

[Sintezza]

1 minute ago, Murissa said:

Would you say it is better to get a X99 with a matching CPU that you have listed? I will play games on this system, but I will also be using 3D editing programs and video editing.

 

Thank you for the explanation  

I'm nt too sure of the benefits of more than 3 PCI-e slots?? 

RAM frequencies I am not too sure on either. Or the SLI support. Sorry I'm still wrapping my head around motherboard components. But I will go through that list one at a time

 

Well this depends a bit on which particular programm you gonne use for your editing work?

 

[Murissa]

2 minutes ago, Sintezza said:

 

Well this depends a bit on which particular programm you gonne use for your editing work?

 

Creo I was going to use, I may end up using others. Also I intend to use it for programming also, if that helps?

[zMeul]

8 minutes ago, Murissa said:

Also I intend to use it for programming also, if that helps?

computer programming doesn't use computer resources to the point you'd need an i7 for it

you can do programming on an i3 just fine

[Sintezza]

21 minutes ago, Murissa said:

Creo I was going to use, I may end up using others. Also I intend to use it for programming also, if that helps?

Ah Creo is a programm that i have no experiance with unfortunatly.

But if we talk about adobe premiere for example, the 6700K is pretty much on par with a 6800K.

This is because the 2015 version of Adobe premiere really doesnt scale well beyond 4 threads.

 

I do think that either way both choices will be absolutely fine for your scenario.

The Skylake 6700K 4 core 8 Threads will be better at gaming for the most part.

If you want to match the gaming performance of the Skylake chip, you will have to overclock a 6800K.

So that is something to keep in mind pretty much.

However overclocking a 6800K to said 4.2Ghz isnt really that much of a challenge.

[steffeeh]

The reason I have a hexacore 5820k is because I do a lot of audio editing with MIDI working, doesn't makes much sense to most people, but anyway for that I need those extra cores. I don't know in your case though, but you could google for benchmarks on the editing softwares that you use and find out what CPU you want to go with.

 

For gaming only however you're better off with a quadcore with higher clock, like the 6700k (these also tend to reach higher overclock results as they're not as hot as those with more cores).

 

I can't speak for the 6800k, but it's the new version of the 5820k, and well... I could use my 5820k at 4.2 GHz without any extra voltage added, which was great.

My overall impression when browsing is that the 6800k is quite similar to the 5820k when it comes to overclocking.

 

By the way, a word of advice, especially when selecting the motherboard - don't be afraid to invest a little extra in more features, as a motherboard is a component you may have for a while, so it's worth going with some extra features that may become useful in the future, such as PCIe slots or M.2 support, etc.

 

Also, something a bit off topic, I see in your build list that you plan on buying a 250GB SSD, for me that's what I originally bought for my current system, but I only had it for like 8 months before I upgraded to a bigger SSD (the one in my sig), and that has been my best upgrade for me. If there's something that I regret with my system, it's that I should have bought the bigger SSD from the start. Take a look on how big all your installed files + OS are currently, as well as any file you maybe want to open more quickly, as well as having some headroom, and then decide on the SSD from that

[Murissa]

13 minutes ago, steffeeh said:

The reason I have a hexacore 5820k is because I do a lot of audio editing with MIDI working, doesn't makes much sense to most people, but anyway for that I need those extra cores. I don't know in your case though, but you could google for benchmarks on the editing softwares that you use and find out what CPU you want to go with.

 

For gaming only however you're better off with a quadcore with higher clock, like the 6700k (these also tend to reach higher overclock results as they're not as hot as those with more cores).

 

I can't speak for the 6800k, but it's the new version of the 5820k, and well... I could use my 5820k at 4.2 GHz without any extra voltage added, which was great.

My overall impression when browsing is that the 6800k is quite similar to the 5820k when it comes to overclocking.

 

By the way, a word of advice, especially when selecting the motherboard - don't be afraid to invest a little extra in more features, as a motherboard is a component you may have for a while, so it's worth going with some extra features that may become useful in the future, such as PCIe slots or M.2 support, etc.

 

Also, something a bit off topic, I see in your build list that you plan on buying a 250GB SSD, for me that's what I originally bought for my current system, but I only had it for like 8 months before I upgraded to a bigger SSD (the one in my sig), and that has been my best upgrade for me. If there's something that I regret with my system, it's that I should have bought the bigger SSD from the start. Take a look on how big all your installed files + OS are currently, as well as any file you maybe want to open more quickly, as well as having some headroom, and then decide on the SSD from that

Awesome, thanks for the advice

With the comp. I was planning to have Windows 10 pro and Linux on the SSD. May I ask what was the reason(s) that made you get an upgraded SSD, and on a separate note if you had your OS on that SSD, how did you transfer it from the 250 to 500?

[steffeeh]

Partially because I got tired of the noise from the harddrive that O also had in the PC, and wanted to get rid of it.

But mostly because my SSD eventually got full with programs and such so I had to install an additional 200 GB of programs to the harddrive, and I also started wondering why I even used a harddrive when I had a computer that otherwise were pretty powerful that I had done lots of investments in, not to mention that I regurarly put a lot of effort into it to squeeze out as much performance as possible... why didn't I do the same for the storage? It would only have been $100-150 extra if I grabbed a 1 TB SSD from the start and therefore had plenty of headroom.

Now my computer is super fast in literally everything I do, and that alone made it worth upgrading to the bigger SSD, the experience in using the computer is just great.

Not saying everyone should get a 1 TB SSD of course, but put a little extra thinking into eventually going with a slightly bigger one, such as a 500GB. For me personally, I'm never going back to harddrives except for external ones for backups.